Monday, October 04, 2010

Cartooning Pretty Faces

It's harder to cartoon faces that aren't funny looking to begin with, but I'm trying it to see if I can then design some girl characters that aren't stock animation designs. There seems to be only a couple approved ways to design pretty girls in animation even though in real life there are countless pretty faces that all look different.

I suppose every cartoonist should document in some way the times (s)he lives in, but I just don't have any grasp of contempo-pop, barely any on contempo-celebrity, and though I respond to alot of the caricature you've been posting the last few months, I'm dying to retreat from the spectacle back to the past. I think this is why I loved your old MM stuff- the anachronism of it all!

I think many of the sketches you've been posting are in this category, but animating them could be challenging. You're liable to lose the balance between cute and grotesque in some poses, causing the audience to view the character as being more goofy than attractive.

The usual concession is to make the pretty girl characters simple and to not vary the designs much. That isn't entirely realistic because in real life everyone's face contorts and makes awkward expressions while speaking and emoting.

Maybe more shading detail if it's part of the look. For an ink line drawing, more lines of detail can tend to suggest too many wrinkles or puffiness, so it's tricky to sell young and attractive. Probably a big reason for the usual simplicity.